


Chronicles of Mud

by Nanubi



Category: Babylonian Mythology, Christian Lore, Native American/First Nations Mythology, Original Work
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Bisexual Female Character, Blood and Gore, Consensual Underage Sex, Cooking Lessons, Crazy, Curses, Demons, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, F/M, Fishing, Hunters & Hunting, Louisiana, Madness, New Orleans, Original Universe, Overstimulation, Post-Apocalypse, Rituals, Soul Bond, South, Tribadism, True Love, Underage Rape/Non-con, Underage Sex, Vampires, Weapons, Wendigo, Were-Creatures, Witch Curses, Witches
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-14 07:02:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10531335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nanubi/pseuds/Nanubi
Summary: Ya'll heard the stories. Wings black as pitch, blotting out the noon-day sun and bringing with them the smell of death.Ya'll heard the tales. The dead rising to retake the earth, along with the hoofbeats that brought pestilence and Hell.Ya'll heard the...well, Hell if I ain't run out of synonyms.Mud'll take care of it. Always has. And judging by that look in the bastard's eyes and the crazy that plum leaks outta him, he always will.What was it the Postal Service used to promise? Neither rain, nor snow, nor...? Fuck it. Mail comes around at some point. Even through Hell's Legions. Same as Mud.Ya'll heard the stories, after all.





	

_It's incredibly hot in here today..._

_Incredibly hot in here..._

_It's incredibly hot in here today,_

_Incredibly hot in here..._

_The air is gettin' slippery and it's not to my surprise,_

_My heart, it's beatin' irregularly and the sweat it fills my eyes._

_I do not mind what I excrete 'cause I'm here to make a buck._

_And those that cannot take the heat can take a flying--_

_Ffffffforgive me if I hesitate._

_It's incredibly hot in here today..._

_Incredibly hot in here._

_\--Primus, The Air is getting Slippery_

 

_My name is Mud, but call me Alowishus Devadander_

_Abercrombie._

_That's long for mud, so I've been told._

_Told by this sonsabitch that lies before me bloated blue and_

_Cold._

_I've got my pride. I drink my wine._

_I'd drink the finest, 'cept I haven't earned a dime in many months..._

_Or were it years?_

_The breath on that fat bastard could bring any man to tears._

_We had our words. A common spat._

_So I kissed him upside the cranium with an aluminum baseball_

_Bat._

_My name is Mud._

_\--Primus, My Name is Mud_

 

It was December of the Year of our Lord 2012 that Hell came with the Pale Horseman.

It was February of the Year of our Lord 2013 that Lucifer, Lord of Darkness, spread black wings to blot out the noon-day sun.

It was June of the Year of our Lord 2013 that the first of the dead rose from their graves, their stench only bringing more from their foul pits.

It was August of the Year of our Lord 2017 that "Heaven" fell to earth. A cruel joke, as the faithful flocked only for seven crowned heads to devour them.

It was May of the Year of our Lord 2029 that Hell went back into its hole. That "Heaven" sank beneath the waves. That Lucifer closed his wings once more.

It is July of the Year of our Lord 2078...Or 2077? No one keeps track anymore. In fact, it might not even be July. Hell, it may be Flubberwumpkins, for all the good it does us.

Magick curls like fog beneath the mangrove trees. The dead breathe, same as us, and they deserve their rights and their land. Same as us. Men with the hearts and souls of wolves and other, darker beasts stick together like kin, eyeing strangers and wanderers moving through the sleepy burg of Primrose, Louisiana like hawks.

...Hell, that fella right there may actually be a hawk. Who's to say, when the moon calls so sweetly? Enough to make a man sick.

Sick men...Falling to disease and pestilence left over from the last Age. They wake back up, though, after they keel over. And its up to men like Mud to put 'em back where they belong.

...Mud. Now there's a name. He moves like a man possessed, from east to west like the stench of brimstone. They say his eyes glow like embers, like the Devil Himself. They say he's got the strength of seven men, the speed of twelve, and the libido of twenty. They say he doesn't sleep, he won't rest until evil gets its foul hide back to wherever it belongs.

They say he's got webbed toes, and a tail, like Hellspawn. They say he moves with the wind because he  _is_ the wind, a manifestation of Gaea's sorrow and rage. They say he's fucked a girl in every town from Tampa to Tulsa. They say those girls can't be satisfied by nothing else, now that they've had a taste of sin itself.

They say lots of things. They say he's got the know-how to commune with the Other Side. They say he's the reason the dead rose to begin with. They say he's got the three Witches of the South fighting over his soul after he ups and kicks the bucket.

They say he ain't got no soul any more. Just a hollow, black, slimy thing that hungers and writhes like the nightmares of the mad and lonely.

They say he ain't had a soul ever since he was born. A premature monster with black eyes and a clown's smile.

They say...They say...They say...! Rumors spread like fungal rot, gnawing at the mind of the common folk and the governors and the preacher men and the men who still ain't got no faith in God, even after He sent his favorite Son.

But Mud don't pay no mind. He moves from east to west, then back east. Purging evil as he goes. A shotgun loaded with silver and salt, an iron sword like a knight of old, Molotov Cocktails and bottles of water both holy and profane. He's got Voodoo magicks, catholic prayers, and Hindi incantations, plus a thousand and one other things he ain't had the chance of trying yet.

He's staked Vampyres in Miami.

He's knocked Zombi heads in New Orleans.

He's exorcised Daemons in Nashville.

He's settled Werewolf mating disputes in San Diego.

He's played chess with Death.

He's played checkers with Christ Himself.

He's stuck his dick in anything mildly female and mildly good looking from the Grand Canyon to Niagara Falls.

He's a man of the people.

He's a Daemon to be feared.

He's an Angel, delivering us from our sins.

And he might just be the single unluckiest sonuvabitch this side of the Mason-Dixon Line.

 

* * *

 

 

Darkness.

It was all I knew. There was a warmth to it, a subtle heat that buoyed me from sinking deeper into the abyss.

I don't know how I knew there even  _was_ a deeper. I just knew that I was thankful I wasn't going...down. The warmth blossomed against my chest, between my breasts, over my heart, and I knew nothing.

Was this death? Far from the Hellfire and Brimstone the Reverend shouted about. Far from the babies with wings and stringed harps Mama used to whisper about, too. Was this better than either of those? Yes. The nothingness was a soothing heat, and I relaxed into it.

An eternity in a bubble bath. A luxury most couldn't afford. It was so hard even getting a hold of soap, at least soap that wasn't homemade and burned like chemicals. I sank deeper, feeling my mind begin to slowly break apart.

I...wasn't afraid. I knew that I would've been, before the warmth. But the gentle nothingness was so pure...

To become a part of nothing...? Was that really such a bad thing?

...Peace at last...

... _Not so fast._

Fire.

Twin embers burned into me, shining down from above as flames burned and charred into my perfect nothingness. I screamed somehow, without a mouth or throat, and even then something felt raw from the sound.

_Stop struggling, little one._

Ice.

The embers burned on, a slow arc of harsh blue light trailing downward from them until it formed an almost profane shape, like a man's girth or an ancient pagan rune. I gasped as the ice enveloped me, as two more embers began to burn, these an almost nuclear shade of shining green.

_Fetch her, Adramelech. She's the one._

Lightning.

My entire being erupted into crackling pain, and I screamed again, somehow, even as those embers grew closer. The nothingness began to tear at the seams, blinding light shining through the gaps, and I screamed again as the heat below me...gave out.

Falling.

I was falling.

Down, down, down, staring down into infinity as  _something_ reached for me from far below, eyes and mouths eagerly stretching.

A flash of green and blue, and my descent jerked to a stop.

The soft sound of wingbeats buffeted my ears and I craned my neck up, somehow physical now, like I had been...

Before. Oh, God...Mama...Sissy...

A black man peered down at me. But from the neck down he had the body of a beautiful, shining bird. Feathers of green and blue, purple, and colors I had no name for shone with their own light as the bird(?) pulled me up a few inches.

Those eyes...The green embers I had seen before...

The man(?) grunted, the veins standing out in his thick neck as he bared his teeth, wings beating harder. From his back end two legs like a horse...no, a donkey, flailed as if to find purchase.

_Adramelech!_

**I serve.**

The voice was thick and...crunchy? Gritty, like the throat was often used to gargle small rocks. Like he ate shards of glass for every meal. The bird man hauled me up a few more inches.

Those twin, burning embers grew ever closer, as the hungry thing below reached for me desperately.

_How is Cousin today, Adramelech?_

There was somehow laughter in the voice, a crinkle of a smile in those embers. I stared up as the bird...no, Adramelech, hauled me up another inch and a half.

**As ugly as the first time you saw him, Dumbass.**

_Truly? But I sent him that makeup kit last Christmas...!_

**Shut up...! She's heavy!**

I gasped as we lost an inch. The thing below us was within arm's reach. It groaned, a sound like a droning, near-death whale's song. I squeezed my eyes shut as a cold slime neared my ankle...

All at once, we shot up a foot. Then three. The thing screeched like an angry jungle cat, lurching closer half a foot as we shot upward seven.

_Despite my unlimited power, Adramelech, I'm not going to be able to keep this Circle up much longer._

**Nearly there. We've lost Cousin.**

_Ah! Excellent. I knew I could entrust this task to you, old friend._

**You're not worth the trouble, Dumbass.**

_I love you, too, big guy._

**Hmph.**

The thing let out a long, mournful howl, like a kicked dog, and I stared down at it as it retreated. Its eyes bubbled, slime drooling down across its skin and into its many, many mouths like a perversion of tears. I grimaced as we ascended another twenty feet. Fifty. Seventy.

One hundred and seventy. Three hundred. Infinity fell away from me as the nothingness around me began to steam, a thick, almost prehensile fog curling around my ankles and calves as we continued to ascend.

**We've reached Narcissa.**

_Halfway there._

The fog suddenly gripped my left foot and  _held_ , halting our progress with a painful lurch. I cried out as I stared down, kicking my bare feet at the fog as it slowly curled a sinuous length around my leg, up toward my thigh.

Adramelech hauled us another foot up as the fog clenched eagerly around my thigh, the air itself slicing easily into my skin. I gasped as a line of blood slid along the curve of my leg, beginning to drain down my skin.

**Gods be damned.**

_Such language. Unbecoming of a Prince._

 

The fog slid higher and heat roared through me as it neared my--

The fog dissipated with an audible hiss as Adramelech lashed out with his mule legs in a savage kick. And then we were ascending again, the white beginning to bleed into grey.

**Nearing Limbo.** **Almost past.**

_Don't wake Him._

**Obviously.**

I looked around me blindly as the grey darkened, darker and darker as we ascended.

... _Shapes..._ swam in the nothingness, all hinting at a single, enormous being. Long, multi-segmented arms, hundreds of them, all connected to a muscular torso, bearing six pairs of full, milk-heavy breasts.

I squeezed my eyes shut, biting back a cry of fear as we kept flying upward.

**...and...Limbo remains blind. Is the portal open?**

_In a moment, Adramelech. I fear I may have found a...problem._

**Gods be damned.**

The ascension slowed, hot air billowing around my face and whipping my hair as we stopped. The grey was almost darkest black.

I made the mistake of looking down.

The hundred armed beast...The fog...The thing, at the bottom. All seemed more than eager for me to fall back down. I forced myself to look back up, unable to keep back the incredulous tears as Adramelech looked down at me.

**Fear not, little soul. We'll be back in the world of the living in but a moment. Just...It's a bit cliched, but don't look down.**

I had already made that mistake. I kept my eyes firmly rooted upwards, staring into the shining green embers that stood for the creature's eyes as it looked back upwards itself, wings beating slowly yet somehow keeping us aloft.

_It would be now that I misplace the Gogseye..._

**Any time now, Dumbass.**

_Hell's Bells, I know I just had it..._

~~\--mb as ever...ud?~~

I flinched at the unfamiliar voice, looking around quickly.

No one was there, and Adramelech didn't seem to hear it, regarding the void above us impatiently.

**Some enjoy Limbo, Dumbass. Some even prefer it. I am not one of those types of Daemons. Can you find the motherfucking Gogseye and let us out of this Godsforsaken place?**

_Temper, Temper! I just had...Ah! But where is my...?_

**Fucking Christ.**   **Are you an idiot, or is this more of that "unlucky streak" you've been blathering about?**

_Lady Luck is a cruel mistress, my friend. And I may have lain with her sister. Now let's see here...Was it Gogseye and Witch's Tooth, or Witch's Tooth and Gogseye...?_

**It's...I don't even...Take the athame and smear the Foulpus on it...**

_Yes, yes, I've done that._

**Okay, now take the Gogseye--**

_Yes, I've got it--_

**And mash it with the Witch's Tooth--**

_Teeth don't mash, Adramelech--_

**Then mix it with the Proof of Defloration and carve the motherfucking Defilement Rune, and _get me out of here...!_**

"Ahh!"

The fog was back, latching onto my foot again and tearing the sound from my lips. It slid between my toes almost playfully, reddening my skin and threatening to slice the little digits clean off.

**Fucking Christ, Mud, the rune, the rune! Aldrenal's getting handsy again, and I'm about at my wit's end, here!**

_I've got it, I've got it...Hang on, hang on. Aldrenal? Aren't you past Limbo?_

_**Does it fucking matter, Mate?** _

_Okay, okay, I've almost...Alright, you'll need to do a bit of pushing, old friend._

**Pushing? Why the fuck--**

_The Gogseye was on sale. It's past its use by date._

**Fucking--**

We surged upward. I cried out as the fog clenched tighter, drawing blood again as it desperately latched onto me. I squeezed my eyes shut, lashing out desperately as the air around me began to bend.

_Hell's Bells, Aldrenal, you can't manifest in the Material! Let go of her!_

**You can't reason with cancer, Dumbass!**

_Well, not with that attitude._

The fog lost its grip, slicing my foot open clean to the bone and tearing a scream out of me as pain shot straight up my leg and into my chest, sending my heart stuttering.

In response, a low warbling drone vibrated the air around me.

**Oh, lovely.**

_Come on, then, you're almost there! What's wrong now?_

**Your uncle, Dumbass.**

_Oh, fuck._

~~\--ng done it...nt you...ot?~~

Pain lanced directly between my eyes, and I cried out again, just in time for an arm with near ten-times the reasonable amount of elbows to reach up out of the abyss below us, an enormous bloodshot eye meeting mine.

_Push, Adramelech! The fabric's tearing!_

**Fuck's sake, mate, what do you think I'm doing down here, having fucking brunch?**

~~Pierce the Forsaken.~~

The arm...exploded. Gore and bits of bone showered us both as the creature roared in pain, losing its grip on nothingness and beginning to fall. The fog eagerly lapped up the blood, coming closer as it noticed the pieces of meat that were stuck to my skin.

**Fucking Christ!**

_What was...was that you?_

**No, that wasn't fucking me! When have I ever _exploded_ things, Dumbass?**

_Nevermind! Ride upon the night! The blue and orange embrace you! Mother moon shines eternity upon the children of the hallowed!_

**Let the blood of sin shine upon the blade of the Nephilim, let this rune upon pitted stone be like a kiss placed upon Gaea's breast! Infinity stretches no more as the lines blur between Heav'n and Hell!**

_Mother Mary, full of Grace, as Samedi smiles and Klishndra bares herself to the eyes of the penitent!_

**Pierce the Fabric!**

Light. Heat. Cold. Pain. No, agony. I couldn't help but scream as the air in my lungs turned to liquid, choking me halfway through as up became down and I landed so hard on my side something  _snapped._

I could only stare at the broken stone that my head laid on. At the moonlight that bleached gravestones and unkempt weeds into scales of grey.

As I choked on what tasted far too much like blood.

Hands found my shoulders. Warm, dry, rough, and very large. I was sat up and suddenly those hands struck my back. Hard.

I was forced into a cough, which became a choke, and then I was hunched forward as I vomited what felt like a lifetime worth of foul smelling bile. The hands continued to carefully beat my back as the stuff just kept coming, filling my nose and stinging my eyes with hot, ugly tears.

It was over after far too long and I slumped backward into those hands, who seemed careful about supporting me. I stared down with blurred eyes at the thick, black liquid that had just left my body.

It...Oh God, it was  _moving...!_

"There, there, now. Take a breath."

That voice. It was the same from...

Rich. Dark. Masculine but with an odd lilt that was neither accent nor brogue. I grimaced as I let my head fall back, to stare up at the Devil Himself.

I jerked out of his grip, choking on a gasp as the burning embers in his eye sockets crinkled with amusement. He carefully helped me right myself, even with me fighting him, before he politely let go.

**Jesus, Mud. Give the girl a moment to breathe, eh?**

I lurched at the second voice, turning in abject terror, expecting the bird with the black man's face.

Instead, I was looking at a large, gorgeous wolf, with fur black as night and eyes that shone with an intelligent green light.

Mere inches from me. Pulling back its lips in a horrifying bastardization of a smile.

**Morning, sweetheart.**

"G-God protect me!" The words left my lips, hoarse and broken, as I jerked away. Only for my side to bloom with fire and my vision to go white.

I would've found myself on the ground again, if not for those warm, rough hands on my bare shoulders. My...My bare...

Oh heavens save me. I was naked.

"Breathe with me, darling. Here, come now. In...1...2...out...3...4..."

**Lucifer Himself curses your fucking breathing exercises, Mud.**

"Ah, but they're working, yeah? Come now. Like that. Just like that. In...1...2...out...3...4..."

It was working. As I drew in breath after ragged, burning breath, my mind calmed.

I remembered. Mama...Reaching for me as the angel swooped down. The fire on his blade, the glorious red and white wings, stained with blood.

The...The pain...

_Oh God, the pain...!_

"Oh, dear."

I sagged into the man as I felt it again. The burning sword meeting my shoulder. Continuing downward as if through butter, slicing clean through between my breasts and out the opposite side.

I had still been alive, if only for a moment, as my body fell in two pieces to the ground. There had been minimal blood, the flaming sword cauterizing both pieces of my body as they fell a few feet away from each other.

The look in Mama's eyes as she screamed, reaching for me as another of the glorious winged beings moved toward her, swinging a flail and baying for blood like a mad dog.

Sissy's look of utter, broken defeat as a third bent her over the fence and...!

"Darling, look at me."

I looked. The burning embers that were his eyes met mine and suddenly the images were set aflame, turning to ash in my mind.

I sagged all over again, my face falling into the man's thick leather coat as the tears spilled over once again.

**I believe you may have been correct after all, Mud.**

"Hush, Adramelech. Fetch us the wineskin, yeah?"

**Of course. Because _alcohol_ is what she needs.**

"...But there's water in it."

**Then why are you calling it a wine...You know what? Forget it. I'll be back.**

The wolf stood and stretched luxuriously before padding off. I watched it from the corner of my eye, unable to forget the bird...man...donkey... _thing_...That had quite literally pulled me out of Hell.

"W-why...is he...a wolf...now?"

The man looked down at me, molten embers crinkling in a gentle smile as he carefully adjusted me in his lap.

"In what form did he appear before?"

"A...bird...with a donkey's legs, and the face of a black man."

"Ah." He half smiled, half grimaced as he carefully, oh-so-gently adjusted me again. "His true form. The 2nd Prince of Hell, Daemon of Regency. He must have felt quite strongly about your rescue if he bothered to fully manifest. He generally doesn't."

"Oh..." My voice hitched as another wave of nausea hit me, my head suddenly swimming. The man guided me into a laying position, careful not to touch me anywhere inappropriate as he made sure I was comfortable.

"This will pass." He assured me gently. "Give yourself some time...An hour, or two at most. Just enjoy the moonlight."

I looked up, unbidden. The moon was bloated and fat, sitting in the sky like a Queen Spider among her broodlings. The stars stretched around her, eager to please but never matching her majesty.

It...helped, oddly enough.

"Mother Moon takes pity on the creatures of the night." He said, voice soft as he sat back and began undoing the buttons of his coat. I watched him carefully out of the corner of my eye as he reached into an inner pocket...

And pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

My eyes widened with surprise as he slid one out with a single, practiced motion and placed it between his lips. He brought his fingers up toward the unlit end, and it sparked into an ember without any other movement or outward sign of action.

"Are you a demon, too?" I rasped. He frowned, drawing a slow, luxurious breath of tar and death and slowly letting it out into the air.

Instead of the stink I normally associated with tobacco, however, there was a nutty, herb and clove scent that eased my mind further, oddly comforting in the cool night air.

"Not yet." He murmured around his cigarette, glancing down at me. "Well on my way, however."

"...How?" He raised an eyebrow before taking the stick from his mouth again, making sure to blow the smoke away from me.

"I signed a contract, darling." He said easily. "Same as every other Daemon did, before their rise to power. As I hope you will."

My eyes widened again as he leaned back, just in time for the padding of paws to sound not far from us.

**Am I too late for the...?**

"Who are you?"

**Yay, I'm not.**

The man leaned forward, smiling a gentle smile at me as he tipped an imaginary cap.

"Alowishus Devadander Abercrombie, at your service." He said, ember eyes sparkling with mischief. "Mud for short."

 

 


End file.
